Time trials originated in England back in 1895, but when did they become specific bikes, different from the road bikes of the era? While I have an early 80s frame made of Tange aero tubing, I don't think it would have been a TT bike, rather than part of the aero fad at the time.

Gitane USA claim to have made the first TT bike in 1981 with aero tubing, backward mounted front brake.

1986, Ukrainian 50km ITT championship. Riding the kickass Takhion. No water bottle, of course. 28-spoke Campagnolo hubs laced to Soviet-made 'aero' rims. 100km TTT the next day, and then the road race. These were the days.

Here is my mid 1980s Rossin Cronos TT bicycle. These used a sloping top tube and smaller 650c front wheels. These type of bikes had many names, Profile bikes, Funny bikes, and Low Profile or Lopro bikes. They began making their appearance in TT and Triathlon competition from the early 1980s. This big wheel/small wheel configuration was banned by the UCI in 1996. Mixed groupset; Shimano 600 ax aero delta brakes, and levers (aero meant internal cabling back then). Campagnolo 180mm cranks and Record 7-speed rear derailleur (friction not indexed; indexing was introduced by Shimano in '85 or so). Front derailleur and pedals are period Dura Ace. Cinelli Domino (extremely rare) stem but will replace this with a period correct high riser MTB stem soon (that's what they did back then!). Saddle is a rather unusual Iscaselle with a strange miniscule speedometer or timer (?) mounted into the saddle nose! 650c Wolber Profil front wheel and Zipp 1150 rear disc 700c wheel. Italian-made Rossin frame all the way from Sweden. New Old Stock. Frame never been used apart from me (approx. 50km). I have since been told this batch of frames were specially commissioned (purple and pink) by a bicycle shop in Sweden owned by the 60s and early 70s pro Gosta Pederson and his brothers, a contemporary of Merckx. (p.s. I know those Scott TT aero bars are around 1989 or 90 and are not period correct, but I like them)This bike is hardly ridden. Hangs on my wall as art. Annoys the wife and kids but I think they are beginning to understand it is rather special especially since it was used in a NSW government Bike Week display last month. One needs to be a contortionist to ride it for any length of time, so this 54 year old tries not to.

Last edited by marc2131 on Thu Oct 12, 2017 8:33 am, edited 13 times in total.

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